Many of you may know that DMSI has had a long standing relationship with Dydacomp, maker of MOM (Multi Channel Order Manager). I just returned from a visit to Dydacomp offices in Parsippany, N.J. – and I must say that things are looking up. For starters, the move to new offices represents a nice step up from their previous space, sitting in an attractive office park with hotels and training facilities nearby. Indeed, part of my visit was aimed at getting a strong refresher in MOM capabilities – as part of the MOM Training program – especially new features since my last visit.
In my discussions with fellow attendees, it turns out that MOM continues to attract many niche businesses with varied business models. Some have moved from other platforms (e.g. Order Motion), others have grown out of their home-grown application and need extended features and flexibility. From a marketing standpoint, there was a great deal of interest in the Club Membership module, reflecting the strong interest in retaining existing customers. This seems to be particularly true for the larger number of nutrition and health products organizations that find MOM useful.
Other very useful new and improved marketing features that I discovered include:
a. Synchronization with Outlook (email and calendar).
b. A new built-in connection to the 2012 version of Amazon Marketplace.
c. APIs provide an interface with multiple ecommerce systems to streamline imported or phone orders.
d. Customer notices can now display HTML or attach documents (including PDF).
e. Internet URL referral – a feature in Sitelink (MOM’s shopping cart) that populates the order source code from simply landing on a pre-designated URL. The great advantage here is marketers now have more trackability for the source of web orders.
f. Expanded fraud protection.
g. Customizable invoices and the option to use paperless invoicing
Professor’s Corner:
I believe the long term future for MOM will be the intersection between online marketing and offline fulfillment. To some extent this has already begun, by beefing up synchronization with major players like Amazon and eBay (Overstock.com may be forthcoming). And, since mid-2011, Dydacomp has invited partnerships with competitive shopping carts (Magento, MIVA, Commerce V3).
For their offline role, Dydacomp is also making strides in key functional areas. For instance, they are keenly aware of the requirement for a robust shared inventory solution – and have put that in their priority queue.
Overall, I believe the new leadership put in place at Dydacomp in 2011 has focused the company in ways that are now paying off for customers. More work is needed, but the company vision of a more open architecture and outward partnering seems to be an obvious improvement over days gone by.
